A Few Things on My Mind

I haven't had much time to muse - at least not online. So this will be a mish-mash of thoughts.

First of all...I got my car washed this weekend. That's right, I get it washed every year whether it needs it or not. In between juggling crossword and Sudoku puzzles from Sunday's LA Times, I glanced up and tried to figure out - do I actually heart Boba? And if I do, what about their Soomthies are so awesome...and uh, what IS a soomthie?






Second thought: I was looking up something on iTunes earlier this week and my eye caught this Bob Dylan advertisement. I've never really thought that Bob looked like Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy...up until now...



Third thought: Would you believe that the Get Smart! television series isn't yet available on DVD? I wasn't sure that the jokes would hold up after all these years, but this clip on YouTube shows that it's just as awesome today as it was 35 years ago. Yeah, I said 35.

Fourth and final thought: Never let insurance lapse. I have a friend, who shall remain nameless, whose month of August has sucked. Really sucked. The only reason why he's still here is because of insurance. He was in the emergency room then hospital earlier in the month for almost a whole week. Numerous tests, a private room, etc. Let's just say: thank you, health insurance! Now, he's back at work, healthy, with some color in his face. Somewhere in the last twenty-four hours, his freaking CAR was stolen! Thank god for car insurance. And thank god that tomorrow (eight minutes from now) is September. August has offically sucked.

And yikes. My 43rd birthday is only three weeks away...

A Winning Dress!

Congrats to the Winner!

Not the actress who won the Emmy - but instead to my pal Donna. The very wise and winning actress chose to wear a dress from Donna's company, Elsie Katz Couture.

Congrats Donna for proving once again, you are an incredibly talented designer.




:)

I Heart "On Demand"

TV is good. Cable TV is better. Cable TV with "On Demand" is amazing. TiVo is the top of the heap. This post relates to "On Demand."

For some reason, I haven't programmed "Entourage" into either of my DVRs. I'm not sure why - I just haven't. But thanks to the joy of "On Demand," I can watch Entourage any time I want to.

Today I caught up on the last three or four episodes. This show is just magic. It reminds me of Seinfeld...if you have to explain what happened in a certain episode, it may not sound like a lot happened, but what did happen was awesome.

Personally, I love the character that Jeremy Piven plays - Ari Gold. Not only is Jeremy Piven a freakin' peach - who I have loved since I first saw him in whatever 80s movie he was in. A highlight was the checkout clerk in "Singles" - when Campbell Scott's character (Steve Dunn) was buying a million pregnancy tests. Classic scene. "What's so funny 'bout PEACE, PEACE, PEACE, love and understanding?" But ultimately pales in comparison to each and every scene that he plays as Ari Gold on Entourage. Seriously. Classic. For ten minutes of Ari's greatest hits, just check out this upload on YouTube. "How did the Bay of Pigs go, Lloyd?

So politically incorrect. So fucking ARI! :)


Let's hug it out, bitch.

We're going to hell. Bring your sunblock.


Edited to add: Congrats to Jeremy Piven for winning a freaking EMMY for his portrayal of SuperAgent Ari Gold! On the same night that he gets fired as Vincent Chase's agent...or does he??

Confessions of an Un-Pretty Girl

Last month, Gina wrote about what it's like to not be the "IT" girl. It became a celebration of Geek Girls. Great way to look at it! (or "IT")

This month, I'll also write about what it's like to not be the "IT" girl. As Gina so eloquently put it, You know her. She’s golden. Gorgeous, great body, magnetic personality, intelligent...COOL. Everyone wants to be around her. She drives men absolutely mad.

I have several friends who are this girl. It's not until I spend time with these friends that I realize how much of a division there is between the "me" girl and the "IT" girl. In fact, I was hanging out with one last night. One of the best things about this particular "IT" girl is that she has, in her own words, "been both."

As a kid, she was awkward and 'ugly.' She had scoliosis and wore a full-body brace. Her mom cut her hair close to her head. All I can think of is Joan Cusack in Sixteen Candles. Not the kind of girl that boys flock to.

She told me that she was ridiculed and mocked when she was young. Eventually she got the brace off and her hair grew out. She grew into her beauty. However, inside she was exactly the same. She remembers people treating her differently and not knowing why - since they had treated her so poorly for the past few years.

Her awkward years made her discriminating. She can now tell who likes her for her - and who is shallow and surfacy - which means a lot in this town.

Back to last night. It's odd to see men react to my friend. Their eyes traverse her body from head to toe. They're dumbfounded. They literally fall over themselves to speak to her - to find anything to say to her to make conversation. They want to touch her - to say "hi," or "nice to meet you" or even "do you have a light?" They make incredibly awkward small talk, or bump into her - anything to connect. They throw phone numbers at her, hit on her and try to charm her with all sorts of odd "lines." They manage to eek out one sentence to her and then think they have some sort of connection with her.

This does not happen to me. In fact, this has NEVER happened to me. If it weren't for my pretty friends, I wouldn't even know that it existed. And I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Mystery Solved!

Guess who I talked to this morning! None other than my friend Matthew, who I was sure was wrapped around a telephone pole somewhere in Rhode Island.

This morning, i decided to start calling incessantly until I reached him. Lo and behold on my first call of the day - he answered! Turns out that he's been incredibly swamped workwise and to paraphrase - doesn't have anything to blog about. My heart rate eventually lowered to a manageable rate and I moved along with the conversation. I was really starting to panic. I was searching newspapers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to see if there was any mention of him. I even emailed the website of the TV show that he works for - looking for him. All for naught. He's alive and guess where he is - LOS - FREAKIN - ANGELES! He's there for work, so won't have time for socialization until Monday night. So - who wants to meet me at Bergins on Monday and beat Matt around the head and shoulders for giving me a scare?


So...onto other subjects...I'm writing this email from New Orleans. I flew here today for a work-related activity. "How's flying?" you ask. It was OK. I arrived at the airport parking lot about an hour and 45 minutes ahead of time. I couldn't find a place to park (which will be another rant in another blog) and then the shuttle bus stopped at nearly every terminal...and of course I was flying United - Terminal 7. I was literally sweating (yes, Bean, that's the correct use of the phrase) as the bus was stopping at T1, T2, T4, etc. When I got to the counter, I didn't realize that the humans that are standing there are not there to check you in. You have to check yourself in on the touchscreen - and the humans retrieve the baggage tag, check your ID - and that's about it.

After checking my bag, I had to go outside the terminal where I checked in and go a few doors down to "Gate D." The line leading to Gate D was relatively short - thank god. In fact, the security guy was trying to make sure that people knew that there were three lines - not just one - which put me at the head of one of the lines. I had to put all of my belongings in trays. Tray one was my purse. Tray two was my laptop computer from work. Tray three was my shoes and my sweater. And "tray four" was my carry on bag. I had no idea how much stuff I had. I didn't get flagged and made it through security unharmed. For once, there was plenty of room in the overhead luggage. I think everyone is checking everythings.

The flight was ontime and the trip was uneventful. Upon our descent into New Orleans, everyone's head was trying to stretch around - wanting to see any of the devastation - which we couldn't see from the plane. I walked down to baggage claim as my "pink monster" (a free suitcase which has pink trim which - trust me - will NOT be mistaken for any other bags on the carousel) was coming around the bend. Got into a cab and made my way downtown.

What did I see? Nothing. The rebuilding of the city (apparently) has only happened in the neighborhoods between the airport and downtown. Other than the tell-tale signs of construction - there's no way that you can tell that anything happened. The cab driver (who was from Vietnam) confirmed that they went out of their way to fix these routes because of the tourists. To see the horrific devastation (and the lack of rebuilding) - one has to go outside of the city.

Arrived at the hotel, unpacked, and made my way to the cocktail party - followed by an incredible (buffet-style) dinner. After the dinner and show (three bands - including Gregg Allman's son - boy, that lineage wasn't blessed with strong chins, were they?), I went back to the hotel bar, which is revolving. We had to wait half a revolution before we got served.

I also want to add that I walked through Bourbon Street. It has about 1/1000th of the people that were there just about this time last year...but the volume on the clubs hasn't changed. Loud, pumping drum beats...yikes!

The city is quieter and less frantic than last year. Time flies...

Matt Du Jour

Day Two of the "Matthew, You're Lost - Is Your Bowtie Really a Camera" search.

I know Shannon joins me in my questioning of Matt's disappearance.

So in the interest of brevity (I have to pack for a short business trip to New Orleans), here is today's picture of Matt. I know he hates this one, although personally, I love it.

Matthew Meltzer, where are you???????

A man who committed to a summer of blogging hasn't blogged since July 31.
I sent an email AND called him...looking for him.

Matthew - I promise that I will post a photo of you every day until I hear from you. Don't make me send the Ghostbusters out to find you...because I probably can't get their producer on the phone!

Here's today's photo.

When a Song is actually a Movie

Seriously, "New York City Serenade" by Bruce Springsteen may be one of the best songs ever. I'll get this out in the open: It's not for everyone. And it's thirty-three years old.

It starts off with the opening sequence - an amazing piano intro by David Sancious (pronounced Sanchez - how awesome is that?). Then we're introduced to the hero of our story - Bruce's acoustic guitar, followed by his narrative. Walk tall, or baby, don't walk at all.

What follows is nearly ten minutes of character development - told through Bruce's vocal, the interaction between the guitar, piano and the violins. It's not your typical verse/chorus/verse framework for a song. I don't even think that any of the lines rhyme. (Unless you count repeating phrases such as "She won't take the train" as rhymes.) Wait, who is that new character, is it Clarence's saxophone? It is!

This song is it's own soundtrack to the movie that it paints aurally. In fact, visuals would probably ruin the song. Every time I hear it, it transports me to another time and place. A dark, smoky, sexy Saturday night, somewhere off the NJ turnpike - off the beaten path...where a jazz man or blues man can play a serenade...where a junkman can sing...and a girl in Los Angeles can get lost for a about nine minutes and fifty five seconds...

It's a Crazy Spice World We Live In

This morning I finally got around to seeing 2002’s Bend It Like Beckham. (Nice of me to finally get around to it the week that Beckham got dropped from the England Squad). The movie stars Parminder Nagra, who most US people know as Neela from ER, Jonathan Rhys Meyers from MIiii (although I like to think of him from Velvet Goldmine so that I can think of Ewan McGregor naked), and Kiera Knightly from being hot fame. Due to my several year obsession with the UK Soap Opera EastEnders, I also was familiar with the actor who played Jess’ newly out-of-the-closet friend Tony – he played middle brother Adi Ferreira on EastEnders.

The guy who played Jess’ father – I just looked him up on IMDB only to find out that he’s been in almost 250 movies! His character worked at the airport – I assume in some sort of security function, because he wore a badge. In fact, he reminded me of a guy at Heathrow Airport that I had the pleasure of meeting about 15 years ago on my first trip to the UK. And by “pleasure of meeting” I mean that he went through everyone one of my belongings and bags. Here’s an excerpt from my journal I kept on that trip:

October 14, 1991

Ran errands on Oxford Street and then back to Victoria Station to get bag and off to Heathrow. Ran so late and got chosen by customs. Yick. Had to have bag searched and take all contents out of other. Had a hard time checking in and got checked at every post – down to a guy opening my toothbrush, toothpaste, saline, etc. and yet another metal detector. This flying experience is the only real problem that I’ve seen so far – it really ruins the mood to have all of your stuff searched.

So here we are fifteen years later and the US airports are finally catching up to the UK with their security checks. I remember hearing the announcements in the airports and tube stations to watch for unattended baggage, so it wasn’t as scary for me when they started those announcements in America. The rest of the world has been living with the threat of terrorism for decades – this is all still so new to us. Sadly.

To end this post on a happier note, I just wanted to chat briefly about Beck’s wife, Victoria. Now I don’t know how many of my reader(s) know this, but I was working for Virgin Records (the label, not the music store) at the time of the Spice Girls’ explosion in America...and, ahem, I apologize in advance when I tell you that I was responsible for the marketing of them. What an insane time. Anyway, to tell any stories would take another few blogs or so...but know that “Posh” is my second least favorite Spice Girl. I’m not surprised that she didn’t even make the end cameo in Bend It Like Beckham. It was a celebrity impersonator named Gill Penny. (Poor girl, I hope she gets a real job one day.) Here’s the only picture that I have of me (and about nine other girls from Virgin) with the aforementioned Spice Girls. Oh and we’re all covered in toilet paper because they took a bunch from the women’s bathroom at the restaurant and literally TP’ed the entire place – including people. And to answer your question...my most favorite Spice Girl? Ginger!

Snakes on a Building

My dentist's office is located right off of Sunset Boulevard. Their offices are beautiful and zen-like with huge windows. They even have a masseusse on duty who massages your feet while you are getting treatment (including bi-annual cleanings). After my cleaning and footrub, I was put into one of the rooms to wait to see the dentist. This particular room looks right out onto an office building on Sunset Boulevard that has giant movie advertisements on the side of the building. Today was a day that they were changing the ads...which means that the image on the left was up, but not the words at the bottom. There were two technicians in the office and the following conversation transpired.

Me: I can't believe that you guys have to look at THAT for the next few weeks!

Technician one: What movie is that?

Me: Snakes on a Plane.

Technician two: It's that World Trade Center movie, isn't it?

Me: Snakes on a Plane.

T2: Are you sure it's not the World Trade Center movie?

Me: No, I'm pretty sure it's Snakes on a Plane.

T1: That's the one with Bruce Willis, right?

Me: No, Samuel L. Jackson.

T2: What's that one about?

Me: There are a bunch of snakes let loose on a plane.

T1: You sure Bruce Willis isn't in that one?

Me: Pretty sure. It's Samuel L. Jackson.


Good thing they're excellent at dental work!